Traditionally, the Supreme Court’s terms end by July 1. The Court aims to release all of its opinions by that date and the Justices then disperse across the globe for the summer. This year, however, the Court’s term never really ended at all. Because of the coronavirus, the Court continued releasing opinions in argued cases through July. Then, throughout the summer, the Court issued a series of significant orders about voting rights and states’ responses to the coronavirus. Although the start of the October Term 2020 begins Monday, October Term 2019 never really ended.
The pandemic led to a delayed release of many of the Court’s opinions, including several of the Court’s big ticket cases. The Court released the opinions in the presidential immunity cases, as well as the opinion in the Affordable Care Act contraception case the second week of July.
But the term did not end with the high-profile release of opinions in argued cases. The Court stayed busy with its “shadow docket,” meaning cases that the Court decides without argument and full briefing, continued on well into the summer, largely under the radar. After the official end of the term, the Court handed down significant voting rights decisions likely to shape the election. In mid-July, over a dissent by Justice Sotomayor, the Supreme Court allowed Florida to keep in place its pay-to-vote scheme, which requires returning citizens with felony convictions to pay all fines and fees before regaining the right to vote. Florida, however, won’t tell them how much they owe, and the policy could disenfranchise “nearly a million” Floridians. Over another dissent by Justice Sotomayor, two weeks later the Court stayed a lower court ruling that extended the deadline for collecting ballot initiative signatures and permitted the digital collection of signatures, as well as a lower court ruling extending the deadline in Oregon. The Court also left in place a ruling that pushed Rhode Island’s deadlines for receiving mail-in ballots (the state did not oppose the extension), over a dissent by Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch. States sought to extend these deadlines because of the increased turn to absentee voting in the midst of the pandemic. Because of changes to state voting laws, more Americans are eligible to vote absentee, and because of the risks of contracting the virus, more Americans may try to vote absentee. That increased demand on the postal service may make it difficult to process absentee ballots in a timely fashion, even for people who request and send in ballots early. And the postal service faces additional burdens because of the Trump administration’s efforts to sabotage it.
The Court also released several orders and opinions related to states’ responses to the coronavirus. In August, by a 5-4 vote, the Court stayed a lower court decision that required an Orange County jail to adopt precautions to minimize the spread of coronavirus. In July, the Court, by a 5-4 vote, declined to stay a lower court decision that upheld Nevada’s occupancy restrictions. Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh would have enjoined the state’s restrictions.
There was also the continued drumbeat of the Court overruling lower courts in order to allow the Trump administration to put into effect legally dubious policies. By a 5-4 vote, the Court lifted the lower court rulings that found unlawful the Trump administration’s resumption of federal executions, thus allowing the administration to begin executions. The Court granted other similar stays, by similarly divisive margins, as well. The Court also declined to lift the stay it had issued on the ruling enjoining the president’s construction of the border wall. Justice Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan dissented from that ruling.
None of these monumental decisions were accompanied by any formal majority opinion explaining the legal reasoning behind them. The Court’s work over the summer is often less visible and receives less attention than its work during the term. But the continued stream of decisions is shaping the upcoming election, the country’s response to the coronavirus, and important issues of constitutional governance. The Senate is now preparing for a heated confirmation battle for Amy Coney Barrett before the election. But it’s impossible to appreciate the stakes of the fight to replace Justice Ginsburg without understanding the full scope of how the Court operates and the breadth of issues it touches.
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